Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu, Memrise and SpanishDictionary.com compared — flagship free course, grammar explained, native corrections, real speech and a conjugator.
Spanish is the second most studied language in the world, so every major app treats it as a flagship course with more content and polish than its less popular languages offer. That makes the real choice about method rather than quantity: short gamified contact for a daily habit, explicit grammar when you want to understand why, native speakers correcting you, colloquial listening, or a reference work for verbs. The 5 apps in this guide each take one of those positions, and most learners combine a course with the dictionary rather than choosing a single winner.
Duolingo hosts its most polished course, Spanish, free, with five-minute lessons that protect the streak.
Duolingo's Spanish course is its most complete and best maintained, and the standard gamified mix of five-minute lessons, streaks, levels and rewards makes daily practice nearly frictionless at no cost with ads, which is why it remains the default start. It is less focused on real conversation than Babbel, and the ad-free Super version is paid.
Babbel explains why Spanish sentences work instead of asking you to guess, with linguist-made dialogues.
Babbel applies its conversation-first, linguist-designed method to Spanish, with lessons rooted in everyday situations, speech recognition and clear explanations of the grammar behind each sentence, which is the main thing Duolingo leaves implicit. Full access is subscription-only, it offers fewer languages than Duolingo, and the less gamified design can feel less addictive.
Busuu gets your Spanish writing and speaking corrected by natives and maps the course to CEFR levels.
Busuu combines structured lessons in grammar, vocabulary and conversation with a community of native speakers who correct your exercises, adding personalised plans and official certificates. That human feedback is its distinct advantage for learners who want to be understood, not just pass drills. The strongest features need Premium, it covers fewer languages than Duolingo, and corrections depend on other users being active.
Memrise teaches the Spanish people actually speak through short videos of natives, colloquial register included.
Memrise builds its courses around short clips of real native speakers and spaced repetition, so you hear authentic expressions and varied accents instead of a neutral studio voice, making it the best fit here for listening and colloquial vocabulary. Full access needs a subscription, grammar is less structured than in Babbel or Busuu, and the balance tilts toward words rather than writing.
SpanishDictionary.com is the dictionary and conjugator to run beside any course, with examples and grammar lessons.
SpanishDictionary.com is the most used Spanish-English dictionary on the web, and its app pairs that reference with a complete verb conjugator, vocabulary drills, grammar lessons by level and translation shown through usage examples. It is built for English speakers, so it covers only that language pair, and it works as a companion to Duolingo or Babbel rather than as a standalone course or speaking practice.
Pros
Dictionary with real examples and audio
Complete verb conjugator
Level-based grammar and vocabulary lessons
Cons
Spanish-English pair only
A supplement, not a full course
No conversation practice with people
Download price only. In-app purchases and subscriptions may cost extra.
Questions & answers
Which is the best app to learn Spanish?
From scratch, Duolingo: free, highly polished and built to keep you returning. If you want to understand why the language works, Babbel explains the grammar more clearly. If the goal is speaking, Busuu's native-speaker corrections are the differentiator. Many learners pair one of those with SpanishDictionary.com as their reference.
Can you learn Spanish with just an app?
Up to an intermediate level, yes, with consistency. Beyond that you need genuine conversation: exchanges with native speakers, classes or time in a Spanish-speaking country. Apps are strong on vocabulary, grammar and comprehension, and weak on spontaneous speech, which is exactly what Busuu's feedback partly addresses.
Should I learn Spanish from Spain or Latin America?
Duolingo and Babbel teach a neutral Spanish that leans Latin American, while Busuu offers material from both. The differences are smaller than those between British and American English, so understanding one means understanding the other. If you will live in Spain, get used to the vosotros form and the pronunciation of z and c.
How long does it take to learn Spanish?
For an English speaker it is one of the fastest languages to learn: fifteen minutes a day brings a basic conversational level within a few months. Verb grammar is the part that takes longest, and that is where an app with a conjugator, such as SpanishDictionary.com, does most of the heavy lifting.
More related apps
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